A thinner, "Retina" MacBook Pro had been rumored for some time, and Apple did not disappoint when it introduced the new 15" Retina MacBook Pro at its Worldwide Developers Conference last week.

Availability has been rather scarce since the notebook's launch last week, but we were able to get our hands on the base $2,199 model for testing. (Many Apple Store retail locations had little or no stock during launch week, as early inventory apparently went to fill a rash of online orders for early adopters).

The base model is more than adequate to get a feel for the new "Retina" redesign. We put the machine through some benchmark paces to look at relative raw performance, and spent a couple of days using the machine for our usual work to get a more subjective impression of the whole package—and we came away impressed.

"Future of notebooks"

Apple could have chosen a simpler path to revising its MacBook Pro. The Retina display could have been a drop-in replacement for the existing 15.4" 1440x900 display. Perhaps it could have removed the optical drive, replaced the boot drive with a MacBook Air-like SSD module, and kept the internal 2.5" bay for optional additional storage in the form of another SSD or a relatively inexpensive, but vastly more massive, HDD. Such a design would have likely sold well, and Apple's designers could move on to the next project (hello, new Mac Pro).

Then again, the company traditionally hasn't had problems pushing consumers to adopt designs they might be uncomfortable with at first. Recall the words that Steve Jobs used when he introduced the redesigned MacBook Air in October 2010: "We've tried to be really aggressive [with the design]," Jobs said. "We see these as the next generation of MacBooks—all notebooks will be like this."

The new 15" Retina MacBook Pro is the first time Apple has applied the same design thinking that went into that new Air to its "pro" notebooks. Spinning hard drives? Gone. Optical storage? Useless anachronism. FireWire and Ethernet? Vestigial, obsolete ports.

But this isn't a stripped-down machine with ultra low voltage processors. The new MacBook Pro differentiates itself from the Air by packing in a quad-core Ivy Bridge processor built on Intel's latest 22nm process. It includes Intel's HD4000 integrated GPU, which isn't quite the pixel-y sloth that past Intel IGPs used to be. It also packs in a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M mobile GPU with 1GB of dedicated DDR5 memory, and you get at least 8GB of DDR3 RAM standard.

Chris Foresman

All this hardware pumps 5.1 million pixels to the 2880x1800 pixel Retina display—the sharpest, highest resolution display Apple has shipped in any of its computers thus far.

Still, Apple has kept the previous 15" MacBook Pro design around for those that aren't quite ready for the future. It has an upgradeable 2.5" drive slot and two slots for RAM. It also has a full array of ports, including FireWire and gigabit Ethernet. And, perhaps most importantly to those still dependent on CDs and DVDs, it has an optical drive for those who want the convenience of having one built-in.

But making hard decisions about what stayed in and what had to go has allowed Apple to build a machine that's every bit as powerful—and with the right adapters, as capable—as last year's MacBook Pro design. Yet Apple shaved about 27 percent of the volume and over a pound of weight in the process.

Design

The same huge glass trackpad dominates a large portion of the 15" Retina MacBook Pro when opened.

Chris Foresman

If you have seen any unibody MacBook Pro in the last few years, you already have a pretty good idea of what the Retina MacBook Pro looks like. It has the same textured aluminum finish, the same rounded corners, and the same huge trackpad. The display has a uniform black appearance when the screen is off, due to its fused glass panel—similar to the display assembly of the iPhone 4 and 4S.

The keyboard is slightly different from that used on previous Pro models. Its layout is identical to the current MacBook Air, including the extra key in the F13 position that serves as the power button. (The aluminum power button on the upper right is now gone). And like all of Apple's laptops, the keyboard is backlit.

The backlit keyboard is more Air-like, including the revised power button.

Chris Foresman

The feel of the keyboard is also slightly different. The keys themselves have a very slight texture to them. Key travel appears to be slightly reduced. It's hard to quantify, but there's definitely less travel than previous Pros, or even my 2010 MacBook Air. We wouldn't call this bad, per se, but it's something you will notice and may take some time getting used to.

Laser-etched speaker grilles flank either side of the keyboard, and a noise-canceling microphone is hidden behind each.

One area where the new Pro differs from the old design is the addition of small linear vents along the bottom side edges of the casing. These vents are part of the revised cooling system, and Apple claims that the way they are carved into the unibody creates additional torsional rigidity. There's no noticeable flex in either MacBook Pro as far as we can tell, though—both seem pretty solid.

Additional vents line both edges of the Retina MacBook Pro.

Chris Foresman

So the design isn't really new, per se, just slightly refined for this particular model. It's thin, solid, and feels like a professional machine—exactly what you would expect.

The Retina MacBook Pro is essentially the same thickness as a MacBook Air at its thickest point—0.71 inches versus 0.68 inches, respectively.

232 Reader Comments

"Our review model is the base Retina MacBook Pro, which comes with a 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor. The processor can ramp up its raw clock speed to 3.3GHz using Turbo Boost, wherein one or more cores are shut off when running less than the maximum eight threads simultaneously."

If 7 threads were running all four cores would be up. It tries to fill physical threads (actual cores) over virtual threads (hyperthreading) to get the best performance. Even four threads would have all four cores active.

Even with 8 hardware threads running, if electrical and thermal restrictions aren't met (for example, if not all the threads are using all the available resources all the time), the CPU can turbo up. For this CPU (and I can't find a canonical reference for this, so apologies for not linking directly to anything), it appears that the limits are 3.3 GHz with one core active, 3.2GHz with two, and 3.1GHz with 3 or 4 cores active.

Yes, but I was referring to the higher turbo ratio with one or more cores shut down, if even four threads are active four cores will be used.

Does nobody consider that soldered RAM is going to be more reliable than socketed RAM? And what's the big deal about RAM? All of the other logic board components are soldered in and always have been.

We've been able to upgrade the RAM ourselves for decades now and are used to it. It's been a cheap way to get more performance out of your system. I don't really think soldered RAM is a huge downside (at least not for machines like this), but the price is awful (as it always is when upgrading the base model). €200 for 8GB RAM? It's robbery that is.

I think the issue here is, it's a noise cancelling mic, not a voice-cancelling one.

Ah ha! Well, then it was a good point, but that had been edited before I caught the comment and had automatically thought "noise-cancelling" when responding.

The voice canceling will be used to replace your voice with the soothing baritone of Barry White.

As for the battery that's come up, it's important to note that it's not a Lithium Ion, it's a Lithium Polymer. This means it'll last longer, and doesn't require the cycling in order to maintain capacity.

peppeddu wrote:

Given the price tag, it's a rather pointless investment for Video/Photo professionals.

Sure, you get 2880 x 1800 native resolution, but the screen is still a 15.4"You are not gonna be able to see any real detail on 1080p video that is 1/4 the size of a 15" screen.

If you do any professional editing, you need **that** resolution on a 30+" display in order to clearly see any detail, and the office that has to have the right illumination for the job.

The total price tag would be about the same (regular laptop + external monitor) but the results would be clearly better.

Basic editing while on the road, Pro work when you go back to the office.

Amateur photographer, and couldn't disagree more. If you're out in the field and need to review photos, it would be great. What shots might be slightly out of focus, what angles work better than the others.

For video, would be great to review and edit the footage on site or in a hotel room (done that before). You can't lug the monitor around the airport.

I think the issue here is, it's a noise cancelling mic, not a voice-cancelling one.

Ah ha! Well, then it was a good point, but that had been edited before I caught the comment and had automatically thought "noise-cancelling" when responding.

The voice canceling will be used to replace your voice with the soothing baritone of Barry White.

As for the battery that's come up, it's important to note that it's not a Lithium Ion, it's a Lithium Polymer. This means it'll last longer, and doesn't require the cycling in order to maintain capacity.

peppeddu wrote:

Given the price tag, it's a rather pointless investment for Video/Photo professionals.

Sure, you get 2880 x 1800 native resolution, but the screen is still a 15.4"You are not gonna be able to see any real detail on 1080p video that is 1/4 the size of a 15" screen.

If you do any professional editing, you need **that** resolution on a 30+" display in order to clearly see any detail, and the office that has to have the right illumination for the job.

The total price tag would be about the same (regular laptop + external monitor) but the results would be clearly better.

Basic editing while on the road, Pro work when you go back to the office.

Amateur photographer, and couldn't disagree more. If you're out in the field and need to review photos, it would be great. What shots might be slightly out of focus, what angles work better than the others.

For video, would be great to review and edit the footage on site or in a hotel room (done that before). You can't lug the monitor around the airport.

I guess being a good photographer and taking lots of pictures is out of the question. What are you going to do when you don't like a photo, try to recreate the moment all over again? Some of the most iconic photos aren't exactly perfect in terms of focus, angles, ect.

I was surprised to not see as a con that the battery replacement, which is not user replaceable, costs $200 - about 10% of the of the purchase price. That is a HUGE negative and financial consideration in deciding to purchase this machine.

New battery for my 2007 MBP costs about 120 euros, so the price of the retina MBP-battery is not outrageous in comparison. And it should last longer as well.

So a very powerful (at time of release), non-upgradeable, disposable laptop with a beautiful display for about $3000+ optioned out.

Maybe, I'm just old school but I don't see the value here. Sure it's "nice", but other than weight, nicer screen/graphics, and the "chic" of apple, I don't see how much better this is than my Thinkpad I got last fall which I paid half the price for. My specs: i7 quad core 2.2ghz (3.3ghz turbo), 80GB ssd boot/app drive, 1 500 GB HDD (UPGRADEABLE), 1 hot swappable 500GB HDD (UPGRADEABLE) that I swap for my writable optical drive. 12 GB ram (UPGRADEABLE), NVIDIA Quadro graphics card w/2GB RAM in addition to the intel HD3000 graphics (One step down from 4000), USB 3.0, Firewire, HDMI out, VGA out, ETHERNET, wi-fi, bluetooth, Express card readers, SD card reader, 720p webcam, fingerprint reader (Nice!), color calibrator. Win 7 pro 64 bit. The only thing I don't like about it is the speakers! Thunderbolt will be available as a card soon enough if I need it.

Sorry, I just don't "get" expensive fashion computers.

You and me both. Apple takes a step backwards and they get high praises. I would give them praise if they were able to accomplish what they did, and still let users upgrade parts. That would be a marvel of engineering. And lol, consumer grade graphics on a "Pro" machine. Good work Apple.

The prospect of 1:1 2880x1800 is really enticing (e.g.), hack to enable it or not. I think it would rapidly spoil every other display for me, though.

I remember working on desktop displays at 1920x1080 (~102ppi), after having spent some time on the 13" MBA at 1440x900 (~128ppi), and thinking it was like viewing everything through a magnifying glass. I've gotten used to that now, but what I wouldn't give for some desktop displays to catch up to mobile displays.

The debate rages on about whether the soldered, non-upgradable RAM or the currently non-upgradable SSD are worthwhile tradeoffs. It's the only way to get a Retina display in a portable Mac right now, and we don't see Apple changing its mind on that point. At least the company still offers alternatives, for the time being. But Apple appears to be drawing a line in the sand; this is the future, so get used to it or get left behind.

This is a throw-back to the first generation of mass-market computers from the early 1980's. The main reason they did it at the time? Cost. But now, the main reasons are convenience (size & weight), alongside manufacturing cost & planned product obsolescence.

That's not entirely true. Some of those early machines had DIP sockets that you could snap RAM chips into, and not all of them had to be populated IIRC. And even some of those soldered RAM machines had ways to expand the amount of RAM.

So a very powerful (at time of release), non-upgradeable, disposable laptop with a beautiful display for about $3000+ optioned out.

well, no laptop is really upgradable. CPU and GPU are soldered. Only thing you could upgrade is HD and RAM. Do you see any laptops tha support 32GB of RAM? No? Then why is this MBP's memory-support suddenly bad?

And please tell how this laptop is "disposable"? Because you can't add RAM? Because third parties can't service it easily?

So a very powerful (at time of release), non-upgradeable, disposable laptop with a beautiful display for about $3000+ optioned out.

Maybe, I'm just old school but I don't see the value here. Sure it's "nice", but other than weight, nicer screen/graphics, and the "chic" of apple, I don't see how much better this is than my Thinkpad I got last fall which I paid half the price for. My specs: i7 quad core 2.2ghz (3.3ghz turbo), 80GB ssd boot/app drive, 1 500 GB HDD (UPGRADEABLE), 1 hot swappable 500GB HDD (UPGRADEABLE) that I swap for my writable optical drive. 12 GB ram (UPGRADEABLE), NVIDIA Quadro graphics card w/2GB RAM in addition to the intel HD3000 graphics (One step down from 4000), USB 3.0, Firewire, HDMI out, VGA out, ETHERNET, wi-fi, bluetooth, Express card readers, SD card reader, 720p webcam, fingerprint reader (Nice!), color calibrator. Win 7 pro 64 bit. The only thing I don't like about it is the speakers! Thunderbolt will be available as a card soon enough if I need it.

Sorry, I just don't "get" expensive fashion computers.

Weight and resolution. Which may not matter to you - in which case, yeah, the machine you got is a vastly better deal.

For me, this is a killer deal of a machine. I tend to carry mine around quite a bit, and I'll be doing a lot more of that in the next year when I start taking graduate classes at seminary and taking all my notes/doing all my writing on it, often on campus instead of at home, and usually riding a bike to school. That pound and a half difference (from what I can see from a quick Google, yours is just under 6lb?) will add up in terms of the way my shoulders feel after a few years.

The resolution will be extra helpful for me, though, as I spend a lot of time writing and a not insubstantial amount of time dealing with typography in design settings, and even a bit of time on photography (very amateur, but trust me, the resolution is going to make a huge difference).

Different use cases.

Also: I'm a weird representative of a programmer, in that the aesthetics of my machine affect me at a conscious level. (I could make a long argument about form actually impacting function more than most engineer types realize, but that's for another time.) Good keyboard, pleasant design, a good trackpad, etc. all make me enjoy my work more. The Thinkpad is distinctly middle-of-the-road on each of those points (except maybe the keyboard, which I've heard nothing but good about).

So a very powerful (at time of release), non-upgradeable, disposable laptop with a beautiful display for about $3000+ optioned out.

Maybe, I'm just old school but I don't see the value here. Sure it's "nice", but other than weight, nicer screen/graphics, and the "chic" of apple, I don't see how much better this is than my Thinkpad I got last fall which I paid half the price for. My specs: i7 quad core 2.2ghz (3.3ghz turbo), 80GB ssd boot/app drive, 1 500 GB HDD (UPGRADEABLE), 1 hot swappable 500GB HDD (UPGRADEABLE) that I swap for my writable optical drive. 12 GB ram (UPGRADEABLE), NVIDIA Quadro graphics card w/2GB RAM in addition to the intel HD3000 graphics (One step down from 4000), USB 3.0, Firewire, HDMI out, VGA out, ETHERNET, wi-fi, bluetooth, Express card readers, SD card reader, 720p webcam, fingerprint reader (Nice!), color calibrator. Win 7 pro 64 bit. The only thing I don't like about it is the speakers! Thunderbolt will be available as a card soon enough if I need it.

Sorry, I just don't "get" expensive fashion computers.

I have no problem "getting" that you have a set of priorities that compel you to buy a different computer than the retina Macbook Pro. Conversely, it seems odd to me that you can't "get" the notion that different people have different priorities, and that for some of us this particular computer is ideal for our requirements.

My laptop used to be something that had to carry from one place to another but while I was "there", I was there for hours, so actual portability was never really much of a concern. Now I have to travel internationally and I often have to use my laptop for <1hr - the whole portability is a huge deal - this has made laptop form factor a huge deal for me. Because of this I've been using an Air which is a huge pain because I cannot get enough screen real estate - my lovely new rMBP has made life much easier (least for the past week - however I took 2 international flights - and I'm glad my HyperJuice still works with the new magsafe 2 )

well, no laptop is really upgradable. CPU and GPU are soldered. Only thing you could upgrade is HD and RAM. Do you see any laptops tha support 32GB of RAM? No? Then why is this MBP's memory-support suddenly bad?

Just Plain Wrong. There are plenty of laptops where CPU/GPU are easily upgradeable as well as having 32gb ram capabilities.

Just Plain Wrong. There are plenty of laptops where CPU/GPU are easily upgradeable as well as having 32gb ram capabilities.

LOL. Fools and their money...

By "Easily upgradable GPU" you mean have to pay an outrageous price to just hunt down and purchase an MXM gpu, then have to factor in power consumption, and then hope and prey that your heatsink is capable/aligned properly to fit.

Laptop CPU Upgrades? I'm honestly not even sure if even a majority of the higher end books have this anymore. Its the first market that is almost completely dead in the terms of upgrading.

Go ahead, and pretend to be gloating about the immense amount of space wasted on an MXM GPU and CPU socket, when in reality you'll never actually upgrade these. This is also before factoring in chipset and other requirements for upgrades. I owned a $1500 Sager with a socket, and MXM slot. It was extremely bulky, and quite mediocre (Quality) compared to a MBP, letalone a rMBP.

Oh wait, i have an upgradable CPU you say! You mean my chipset won't support Ivy bridge? But its upgradable!

I know it's been said multiple times, but that soldered ram is one of the two things stopping me from buying it. The other reason that makes me hesitant is that battery, too many problems with the old MacBooks and those batteries make me cringe at non-replaceable batteries. If they dropped the memory upgrage by $50-75 and battery replacement by $50, I'd be their next satisfied customer. I am aware that it seems like I'm being a little nitpicky, but I believe most people would agree with me.

We have a corporate fleet of hundreds of macbook pros. The units with non-user replaceable batteries have been rock solid, we might have replaced two or three batteries in the past 3 years. That's less than 1% of the fleet.

The non unibody macbook pros went through batteries like crazy, just not seeing that any more. Reliability is not a problem.

So a very powerful (at time of release), non-upgradeable, disposable laptop with a beautiful display for about $3000+ optioned out.

well, no laptop is really upgradable. CPU and GPU are soldered. Only thing you could upgrade is HD and RAM. Do you see any laptops tha support 32GB of RAM? No? Then why is this MBP's memory-support suddenly bad?

And please tell how this laptop is "disposable"? Because you can't add RAM? Because third parties can't service it easily?

My Thinkpad W520 (bought July last year) supports 32GB of RAM (already ordered the 2 x 8 GB DIMMs some time ago as 16GB isn't enough)... quite nice for build engineering purposes. Then again, the W520 aren't using DDR3L DIMMs, which are currently still expensive. I was expecting Apple to support 32GB RAM at the most for a mobile workstation class as the Macbook Pro. Given that 8GB RAM stick prices will definitely fall at more affordable prices given 12-18 months, the 16GB cap seems to be a rip off for me.

Same price falls also with flash storage density.

For now though, I'm holding off upgrading my 2009 Macbook Pro and wait for next year's model, hopefully with better specs and price. This 'trend' for upfront hardware payment is something I never expected for a professional machine.

I guess being a good photographer and taking lots of pictures is out of the question. What are you going to do when you don't like a photo, try to recreate the moment all over again? Some of the most iconic photos aren't exactly perfect in terms of focus, angles, ect.

I understand the principles of good photography, and I never specified what I wanted in focus. Certain photography is repeatable, such as repetitive sporting events or portrait photography. Maybe one shot shown larger inspires you to go through a different path than you were previously.

Or maybe the ISO setting you're using is introducing grain that isn't visible on the small display or viewfinder, or on a cheaper display. I might not have the chance to retake the photo over and over again with the settings I want to express myself, and I might only have one chance to capture the moment the way I want to. I've had that happen before, and it's immensely frustrating.

Dear god, what is it with all the whining about the lack of a Kensington lock? if you work at a place where you can't leave your laptop unattended for less than 5 minutes without it being stolen then you've got greater things that need addressing besides needing to have a Kensington lock.

As for the idiot who whined about the fact that he could buy a Thinkpad with xyz specifications and upgradable parts - no one gives a crap what you could or couldn't buy because I'm sure most people who do buy Mac's (like myself) do so because we like running Mac OS X. Now either fix up Windows so it doesn't royally suck or GTFO.

Moderators: How about having a rule - no posting on stories until you've made at least 100 posts in either the Windows, Linux or Mac forums or otherwise the news section will be chocked to the brim with knuckle dragging shit stirring morons.

How does it royally suck? I've been on Windows 7 since release and it's quite good. Sure if you have some very very specific needs it might not be for you, but it's the most generally good OS out there. It just works, actaully.

Moderators: How about having a rule - no posting on stories until you've made at least 100 posts in either the Windows, Linux or Mac forums or otherwise the news section will be chocked to the brim with knuckle dragging shit stirring morons.

Or how about making it so Windows, Linux, or Mac "stories" don't appear on the front page? Obviously only educated users use the subforums, so we should keep this kind of things away from the common, unwashed masses.

(I do have to agree with you on the lock thing though - if you're that worried about your machine, either get something else or move.)

So a very powerful (at time of release), non-upgradeable, disposable laptop with a beautiful display for about $3000+ optioned out.

Maybe, I'm just old school but I don't see the value here. Sure it's "nice", but other than weight, nicer screen/graphics, and the "chic" of apple, I don't see how much better this is than my Thinkpad I got last fall which I paid half the price for. My specs: i7 quad core 2.2ghz (3.3ghz turbo), 80GB ssd boot/app drive, 1 500 GB HDD (UPGRADEABLE), 1 hot swappable 500GB HDD (UPGRADEABLE) that I swap for my writable optical drive. 12 GB ram (UPGRADEABLE), NVIDIA Quadro graphics card w/2GB RAM in addition to the intel HD3000 graphics (One step down from 4000), USB 3.0, Firewire, HDMI out, VGA out, ETHERNET, wi-fi, bluetooth, Express card readers, SD card reader, 720p webcam, fingerprint reader (Nice!), color calibrator. Win 7 pro 64 bit. The only thing I don't like about it is the speakers! Thunderbolt will be available as a card soon enough if I need it.

Sorry, I just don't "get" expensive fashion computers.

You and me both. Apple takes a step backwards and they get high praises. I would give them praise if they were able to accomplish what they did, and still let users upgrade parts. That would be a marvel of engineering. And lol, consumer grade graphics on a "Pro" machine. Good work Apple.

I'm surprised by all the negativity around this new product, but perhaps all the controversy is a good sign. I have this machine and it is not a "disposable fashion computer". It's a forward-thinking collection of technologies that edits out the unnecessary in order to increase portability, durability, and performance. And perform it does. It's expense is justified, mainly because Flash drives are still very expensive. Solid state soldered storage and RAM helps reduce the volume and increases the ruggedness. The graphics is anything but consumer grade. The Intel graphics are simply a low power alternative when nothing more is needed. It's funny that many think the retina display resolution is a waste. They obviously haven't seen it. It matters at a distance of 10" or 4 feet. Going from this MBP to my old cinema display is like going back to a very fuzzy world. The new MBP is a real eye-opener on many levels.

How does it royally suck? I've been on Windows 7 since release and it's quite good. Sure if you have some very very specific needs it might not be for you, but it's the most generally good OS out there. It just works, actaully.

For me (Windows 7):Graphics card random bluescreensUpdated graphics card driver, bluescreens when window was opened (had to roll back drivers)Explorer crashing on right-click randomlyWord not loading documents until launched twiceExcel crashingRandom other issues

To be honest, I think the biggest problem with Windows is the OEM manufacturers. I'm glad that Surface will come from Microsoft, all the problems seem to stem for me from drivers.

I know it's been said multiple times, but that soldered ram is one of the two things stopping me from buying it. The other reason that makes me hesitant is that battery, too many problems with the old MacBooks and those batteries make me cringe at non-replaceable batteries. If they dropped the memory upgrage by $50-75 and battery replacement by $50, I'd be their next satisfied customer. I am aware that it seems like I'm being a little nitpicky, but I believe most people would agree with me.

We have a corporate fleet of hundreds of macbook pros. The units with non-user replaceable batteries have been rock solid, we might have replaced two or three batteries in the past 3 years. That's less than 1% of the fleet.

The non unibody macbook pros went through batteries like crazy, just not seeing that any more. Reliability is not a problem.

That's good to hear. The non-replaceable battery actually concerns me more than the non-upgradable RAM and probably-upgrable-though-OWC SSD.

I got mine the Friday after the Keynote, which was WAY faster than Apple had projected. It's worth absolutely every penny!

It runs way cooler than the MBP 17" that it replaced. Way cooler. As a test, I played Diablo III (Normal Act II) with most settings at Max and resolution 2880x1800 and I was able to play it on my lap. I wouldn't have even considered that on the 17". The fan is much more like white noise, and is nearly imperceptible most of the time. (Though it doesn't run often.)

The display would be world-class even if it didn't have the retina resolution: it's IPS construction gives it color, saturation, contrast, and viewing angles that few other laptops can match. Throw in the retina display and it's way, way better. At first, 1920x1080 seemed too small, but I've gradually worked my way to it and now that I'm used to it I love it.

I did carry my previous 17" MBP with me at times, but I hadn't fully realized how much I avoided portable use until I got the Retina Macbook. It's very portable, yet much more powerful, and easier on the eyes. So now it goes to work with me every day.

I'd add that the SSD is replaceable, and the new connector will be reverse-engineered buy third parties, just as they now offer SSD replacements for the MacBook Air. (You really need to correct that in your article.) So spend the extra $200 and go for 16 GB of RAM from the factory. Some competitors don't even allow that much RAM, and it'll still be sufficient 3-4 years from now.

Competing machines can match the power (CPU, GPU, RAM, etc) and perhaps even exceed it, but they're twice as heavy, twice as thick, and have a lower battery life. No machine can match the display, at any price. No ultrabook comes close in any category, except perhaps battery life or number of ports.

well, no laptop is really upgradable. CPU and GPU are soldered. Only thing you could upgrade is HD and RAM. Do you see any laptops tha support 32GB of RAM? No? Then why is this MBP's memory-support suddenly bad?

Just Plain Wrong. There are plenty of laptops where CPU/GPU are easily upgradeable as well as having 32gb ram capabilities.

One big failure is the loss of a anti-theft anchor (kensington slot). In the real world this system says steal me all over it. I would hate to turn my back a moment and find it gone. While anti-theft only goes so far its' better than not having anything.

Just Plain Wrong. There are plenty of laptops where CPU/GPU are easily upgradeable as well as having 32gb ram capabilities.

LOL. Fools and their money...

By "Easily upgradable GPU" you mean have to pay an outrageous price to just hunt down and purchase an MXM gpu, then have to factor in power consumption, and then hope and prey that your heatsink is capable/aligned properly to fit.

Laptop CPU Upgrades? I'm honestly not even sure if even a majority of the higher end books have this anymore. Its the first market that is almost completely dead in the terms of upgrading.

Go ahead, and pretend to be gloating about the immense amount of space wasted on an MXM GPU and CPU socket, when in reality you'll never actually upgrade these. This is also before factoring in chipset and other requirements for upgrades. I owned a $1500 Sager with a socket, and MXM slot. It was extremely bulky, and quite mediocre (Quality) compared to a MBP, letalone a rMBP.

Oh wait, i have an upgradable CPU you say! You mean my chipset won't support Ivy bridge? But its upgradable!

I have had multiple custom laptops (including Sager) over the last 6+ years and have not had a problem upgrading them. But maybe I am more capable than most.

So a very powerful (at time of release), non-upgradeable, disposable laptop with a beautiful display for about $3000+ optioned out.

Maybe, I'm just old school but I don't see the value here. Sure it's "nice", but other than weight, nicer screen/graphics, and the "chic" of apple, I don't see how much better this is than my Thinkpad I got last fall which I paid half the price for.

Sorry, I just don't "get" expensive fashion computers.

I would agree, if Lenovo wouldn't insist to screw us Europeans over. A Thinkpad T530 with the same specs as the MBPR, with aftermarket SSD and RAM costs me around 2100 € - the MBPR is 2300 €. And then I get a "worse" screen (1920x1080, high-quality TN) and have to wrangle the nearly 1 kg power brick Lenovo insists to bundle with a Quad-Core. So, yeah, this fashion computer looks mighty interesting for me as non-Apple guy too. Not least because there are maybe another 8 laptops out there with somewhat if a quality display (I already stopped insisting on non-glare IPS, thats's a lost cause).

well, no laptop is really upgradable. CPU and GPU are soldered. Only thing you could upgrade is HD and RAM. Do you see any laptops tha support 32GB of RAM? No? Then why is this MBP's memory-support suddenly bad?

Just Plain Wrong. There are plenty of laptops where CPU/GPU are easily upgradeable as well as having 32gb ram capabilities.

LOL. Fools and their money...

Really? IIRC the highest-density SODIMMs are 8GB, so you need four memory-slots to reach 32GB. I have never seen a laptop with four slots.

Easily upgradeable CPU/GPU? Yeah, some laptops might have that possibility, I have never seen one, though. Could you provide a link to one? One with 32GB of RAM would be preferable.